Johanna's+Meditation+EQ+1

=**Essential Question #1**= =**How does students' language development affect their learning?**=

Through the exploration of my own language development, I realized our students' learning is affected by the development of their language. Different aspects of their life play a role in how students develop and what they view as important. Our parents, our friends, and our surroundings all play an important role in language development. Each family has a hierarchy of things that they see as important for survival. Sometimes education and language is not at the top of that system.

As I explored points in my life that affected my learning, I discovered that every moment of tension was essential to my language development. These are moments in our life that we don't appreciate until later on in life. These moments help mold how we learn and how we express ourselves both through dialogue and writing. The day I learned that the word, "mine" (referring to the possession of something) did not need an "s" at the end, I learned that the way we speak can sometimes define how we are perceived by others.

My students are growing up in urban environments, where English is not the first language spoken. Many of them come from very diverse backgrounds, and they were raised speaking other languages and/or using different dialects. Once a student's language is developed with these diverse circumstances they learn to speak a certain way that is not "academically correct." When they enter a school it becomes the responsibility of the teacher to help them the "academic" way to speak and write. As teachers we are responsible for teaching our students pragmatics. Our students need to differentiate when it is appropriate to use certain expressions.

Some students may struggle with understanding pragmatics or perhaps they may not deem it as important to their success. As we look at the households our student's come from, we learn that at times education and language is not at the top of the list of "things that we should worry about." At times day to day survival, paying the rent, having food on the table inevitably becomes the most important. This does not mean our parents don't care, but it does mean that language development in this case is affected. Language becomes secondary and it is just a means to communicated needs. As educators we must involve parents and perhaps provide resources for them as well.

Language development and what families deem as important will always affect student learning. Students put learning on a scale, where they measure it's level of importance in their life. Where education falls on that scale depends heavily on the level of importance or how much education is valued in their home environments.

**Artifacts:**

 * Digital Story:**

Click to view my [|digital story]!


 * Point of Tension Essay:**




 * Open Notebook Language Quiz:**